January 17, 2008

South Carolina Youth!

Are you ready to make a difference for the life of a baby?  Grab your walking shoes and get ready for March for Babies in your town.  Every week in South Carolina 168 babies are born preterm.  Across the nation over 500,000 babies are born preterm every year!  But you can help!  Participating in March for Babies not only provides financial support for research, advocacy, and education on prematurity, but it also shows your community that students are dedicated to improving lives and providing a better start for babies.  March for Babies is perfect for college, high school, middle school and elementary schools and it is never too early to start fundraising or building your team. 

Registering:
Simply visit the March for Babies website: marchforbabies.org.  Simply click Start a New Team, follow the instructions and you will have your own personal website to collect money and raise awareness about your walk campaign.  If you are the first to register for your team, you will be listed as the captain.  Now start inviting team members!

OFT (Online Fundraising Tool)
Once you have registered, you and every individual on your team will have a personal webpage.  You can load pictures, write messages and send emails to family and friends from you page.  It is the easiest way to raise money.  You can also set goals for yourself and team and watch as you climb towards to fundraising goal.  Log onto the website and start raising money to make a difference for babies today!

Fundraising Ideas:
Be creative!  Place coin buckets in every classroom, have a reward for the class that raises the most money, have a bake sale, partner with your dining hall to have a prematurity themed meal, hold a raffle, auction off parking spaces on your campus, get your professors or principal involved.  Stay tuned to the Team Youth website at www.marchofdimes.com/youth for more ideas.

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December 01, 2007

Youth volunteers are an essential driving force in the fight to give every baby a healthy start.  Every year, youth across the nation raise millions of dollars for the March of Dimes.  Youth can be involved in the March of Dimes through one of our many partnering organizations, Collegiate Councils, Chain Reactions, WalkAmerica teams, schools, or simply as individual volunteers.  All youth volunteers or donators are a part of Team Youth, which comprises millions of youth volunteers.

Getting involved is simple.  The Team Youth website, http://www.marchofdimesyouth.com/, has many resources for volunteers.  Here are some of the current events:

Change for Americas Babies
Change for America’s Babies is the latest fundraising initiative.  With over 10.4 billion dollars in change in people’s houses and cars, we can put theses coins to good use in the effort to improve the health of babies.   You can be as creative as you like in how your school or organization collects the coins.  Visit http://www.marchofdimes.com/pad/tools.asp and download Fundraising Ideas if you need help thinking of ways to collect coins. 

 Free kits are available at the official website, www.marchofdimes.com/change.  They include collection bags, posters, and information on how to get started with your coin campaign.  The easiest part is that you don’t have to count the coins.  Simply take your coins to the closest Coinstar machine and use the code #1230.  You can also turn in your coins to your local March of Dimes office.

Get Connected!
Join the youth related Facebook and MySpace groups to stay up-to-date on the latest youth activities and news.

• Facebook Groups:  March of Dimes Team Youth, March of Dimes Team Youth SC
  
• Facebook Causes: Save Premature Babies (March of Dimes), The March of Dimes - Saving Babies Together
  
• MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/marchofdimesyouth
  

Also, the YouthTimes team youth newsletter is another vital link to youth news and updates.  Sign up from the home page of the youth website, http://www.marchofdimesyouth.com/